Africa pushes for 10 slots in the 48-team World Cup expansion
February 23 – The regional fight for more slots in an expanded World Cup from 2026 is already under way with Africa stating it is looking for 10 places, double its current quota.
World Football
A new future for Africa? Hayatou challenger Ahmad focuses on the money
February 21 – Issa Hayatou’s rival in next month’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential election says he intends to totally overhaul the Continent’s financial transparency as he bids to bring to an end to the long autocratic reign of Issa Hayatou.
Discrimination: Luiz wants to move on but Serbs stay rooted in a racist tradition
February 21 – The Brazilian at the centre of the latest disgraceful outburst of racist abuse in Serbian football says he wants to forget the incident as soon as possible despite being in floods of tears at the final whistle – pictures that were flashed across the world.
Hayatou gets South African welcome as Infantino joins Ahmad’s birthday bash
By Andrew Warshaw
February 20 – The tension ahead of next month’s potentially game-changing Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential election is mounting after South African president Jacob Zuma was reported – apparently wrongly – to have formally given his government’s backing to Issa Hayatou despite the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) executive committee officially endorsing Hayatou’s rival, Madagascar’s Ahmad Ahmad (sic).
Racism returns with Serbian league restart at Belgrade derby
February 20 – No sooner had Serbia’s top flight resumed at the weekend after a two-month winter break than the same familiar racism-fuelled trouble re-occurred, with Rad Belgrade’s match against visiting city rivals Partizan marred by a player brawl.
Brussels Eurostadium hits new snag as Anderlecht say they will not move
By Samindra Kunti
February 20 – RSC Anderlecht have announced that the club will not move to the Eurostadium, dealing another blow to the construction of the EURO 2020 venue.
FA Cup: Giantkillers Lincoln slay Burnley, Leicester fed to the Lions at Millwall
February 20 – Any doubts that the FA cup, the world’s oldest and most prestigious domestic knockout competition, has lost its romance were swept away at the weekend when Lincoln City – four divisions below the Premier League – became the first non-league side in 103 years to reach the quarter-finals.
A head start: UEFA to study links between football and dementia
February 17 – Following tentative research published in the UK earlier this week which suggested that repeated headers during a player’s career may be linked to brain damage, UEFA has commissioned its own research project examining links between dementia and playing football.
English to add goalline technology to its second-tier Championship
February 17 – Clubs in English football’s second-tier Championship clubs have agreed “in principle” to use goalline technology from the start of next season.
Ahmad’s CAF campaign for change gathers speed as Nigeria desert Hayatou
By Andrew Warshaw
February 16 – Issa Hayatou’s quest to hang on to power at the helm of African football has taken another jolt with the news that the highly influential Nigerian FA is backing his rival for the leadership.
Exclusive: UEFA rules loophole leaves door open to an age-old issue
By Andrew Warshaw
February 16 – One of the longest-serving figures among European football’s old guard elite is exploiting an historic loophole in UEFA’s age restrictions to try and retain a place at the organisation’s top table.
Cost savings help under-pressure English FA back into the black
By David Owen
February 16 – The Football Association, which is facing mounting pressure to reform from British MPs, has released figures detailing cost savings made as a result of an organisational restructure announced in July 2015.
Brazil’s Rio 2016 alchemist Micale falls from favour over U20 failure
February 16 – The CBF, the Brazilian Football Confederation, and coach Rogerio Micale are poised to part ways following Brazil’s failure to qualify for the U20 World Cup in South Korea. Micale coached the Brazilians to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Exclusive: Olympiacos’s Evangelos Marinakis – Enough with the Mr Bad Guy
By Paul Nicholson
February 15 – Evangelos Marinakis is a big guy. He is physically big, he has a big shipping empire, he has the biggest football club in Greece, Olympiacos, and he is the big player in the social fabric of his home town Piraeus, a district of Athens, Greece.
Turkey join Germany in race to host Euro 2024 finals
By Andrew Warshaw
February 15 – Two weeks before the deadline for initial expressions of interest, Turkey has announced it is bidding for Euro 2024, hoping to be fourth time lucky.